South of Heaven

West of Memphis aims to be the definitive West Memphis Three story [ok]

Now that Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley and Jason Baldwin,
the so-called West Memphis Three, are free, do we need more media devoted to
them? There are the Paradise Lost documentaries, a Henry Rollins album
and Echols just released a book.

It’s best to look at West of Memphis as The New Yorker
of documentaries; it takes what is designed to be the definitive look at a
story about which there is an abundance of information already available.

Of course, TheNew Yorker isn’t perfect. Neither is West
of Memphis. The story is one-sided (though it’s hard to imagine the other
side). Here, we see the entire grisly tale from beginning to end, from the
murders of three young boys in West Memphis, Ark., to the trials and
incarcerations of Echols, Misskelley and Baldwin, to their eventual
release.

All the famous people who supported the three pop up, including Eddie
Vedder, Natalie Maines and Peter Jackson. And though the filmmakers try to pin
the killings on another person, it doesn’t quite work.

What does work are the movie’s smaller moments, such as the surprise
on Baldwin’s face when he eats a Caesar salad for the first time and realizes
there’s cheese in it.